In 1832 naturalist Prince Alexander Philipp Maximilian (1782-1867), ruler of the small state of Neuwied, Prussia [now in Germany], conducted one of the earliest expeditions to the American West to record the natural history of the region. Accompanying him were Swiss-born artist Karl Bodmer, who produced numerous drawings illustrating their travels, and David Dreidoppel, Maximilian's servant and a skilled hunter-taxidermist. Although Maximilian and Bodmer were not the first to explore the American West and record their observations, they were the first team combining a trained, dedicated scientist with an especially skilled illustrator, whose collaboration resulted in a work of unique historical, scientific, and aesthetic importance.

Researchers are fortunate that Special Collections owns a German edition of Maximilian's narrative of the two-year expedition, Reise in das innere Nord-America in den jahren 1832 bis 1834 (Travels in the Interior of North America 1832 to 1834). This account was published in Paris by subscription from 1839-41 and was accompanied by a map of the travel route and by an atlas of eighty-one black and white etchings engraved by Bodmer. Today, there are fewer than twenty known editions of Maximilian's work in the United States.

A naturalist, ethnographer, and explorer, Maximilian enjoyed learning about natural history early in his life. He studied with Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840), a German professor, known as the father of physical anthropology, who proposed one of the earliest classifications of the races of mankind. Because his professorencouraged his interest in natural history, Maximilian first traveled to Brazil from 1815-1817 to study the flora, fauna, and people of the land. He had the opportunity to work with two German scholars who were conducting research in Brazil. During the expedition, Maximilian kept notes on his travels, which he later published as Reise nach Brasilien in den jahren 1815 bis 1817 (Travels in Brazil in the Years 1815, 1816, 1817 ). It was this publication that earned him respect as a naturalist.

Prompted by the success of the Brazil trip, Maximilian desired to lead an expedition to the American West. His reason for the journey, as stated in the preface to his book, was to provide foreigners with a description of the natural scenery of North America and of the cultures of the indigenous inhabitants, a project he thought the United States government had neglected. Although there had been earlier scientific expeditions, none, in his opinion, had supplied adequate portrayals of either subjects. For this expedition, Maximilian hired an artist to accompany him, instead of relying on his own sketches. At the age of forty-nine, Maximilian set out with Swiss artist Karl Bodmer and hunter-taxidermist David Dreidoppel to learn about the Native American people and their culture.

Karl Bodmer was born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1809. His uncle Johann Jacob Meier, a local engraver and watercolorist, trained him in art. In January of 1832, while traveling in Germany and contributing engravings of Rhineland to several albums, Bodmer met Maximilian, who was searching for a draftsman to accompany him to North America. Thus began a two-year journey during which Bodmer performed his job superbly and experienced many adventures as well. He painted portraits of famous Indian chiefs in their natural settings as well as many landscapes when the entourage stopped sometimes rather unexpectedly due to snags along the river route.

Tableau 1. FOREST SCENE ON THE LEHIGH.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

On one unfortunate occasion, he was lost on the prairie near Fort Clark for several hours. Another time his paints and oils solidified due to the cold winter weather. A young and patient man, Bodmer withstood the trials of the trip, and at its conclusion, he returned to France and completed eighty-one plates from the original 400 watercolors. Some plates were made to accompany Maximilian's account of the expedition, while others were sold on a subscription basis. In 1836, Bodmer exhibited many of his plates at the Paris Salon. During the 1850s and 1860s, he won awards for his work; Bodmer continued to paint landscape and animal subjects until his death in 1893 at the age of eighty-four.

In the atlas accompanying Travels in the Interior of North America, the images are aquatints. An aquatint is an engraving produced by a process of etching in which spaces are bitten in with aqua fortis, or nitric acid, to create an effect resembling a drawing in India ink or watercolors.

Tableau 5. MOUTH OF FOX RIVER. Near New Harmony, Indiana

Over a period of nine years (1834-43), many engravers and printers assisted Bodmer with the production of these plates. They generated five editions of Bodmer's etchings, colored or uncolored, on at least three different stocks of paper, including titles of plates in German, French or English. In all, thirty-three plates were designed as vignettes to preface chapters of the German text for Maximilian's account of the journey; forty-eight
folio-size tableaux were issued separately.

After the printing of these editions, Bodmer returned most of the printing plates to Maximilian. During the Franco-Prussian War the Royal Secretary kept them at the Prussian Legation. At the end of the war the plates were returned to Neuwied. In 1959, the New York art firm of M. Knoedler and Company purchased the plates as well as Maximilian's journals and notes, which they later lent to the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, for an exhibit in 1961. The Northern Natural Gas Company of Omaha bought the collection from Knoedler and eventually donated the collection to the Joslyn Art Museum in 1986.

Travels in the Interior of North America is Special Collections' most significant record of the culture and daily lives of the original human inhabitants of North America. As Maximilian, Bodmer, and Dreidoppel traveled westward across the continent, they met many of these indigenous peoples, including the Omaha, Sioux, Assiniboin, Piekann, Mandan, and Minatarre Indians. The scanned photographic reproductions of a select number of Bodmer's images represent landscapes and people Maximilian's team encountered at different points along the expedition route. Follow the expedition team's route shown in red on the map titled Map to Illustrate the Route of Prince Maximilian of Wied in the Interior of North America from Boston to the Upper Missouri in 1832, 33 & 34.

Arriving in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 4, 1832, the Maximilian entourage proceeded to New York City and Philadelphia, then westward by stagecoach to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. From Pittsburgh, they sailed by steamboat on the Ohio River past Cincinnati, Ohio, and Louisville, Kentucky, to Mt. Vernon, Indiana.

The expedition trekked north to New Harmony, Indiana, on the Wabash River where they met the French artist-naturalist, Charles Alexandre Leseur, and the American entomologist, Thomas Say, and then to St. Louis, Missouri, where they made the acquaintance of retired explorer, William Clark.

In April of 1833, they set sail on the Yellow-Stone, a steamboat owned by the American Fur Company, up the Missouri River to Bellevue, Nebraska, and Fort Pierre, South Dakota, and from there to Fort Union near the North Dakota-Montana border. At various points along the route, they disembarked at trading posts, owned by the fur company, which allowed them to observe and interact with indigenous people. In July, they continued upriver to Fort McKenzie, Montana, at the mouth of the Marias River.

Setting forth on their return trip during the fall-winter of 1833-34, the explorers started downriver to Fort Clark, north of what is now Bismarck, North Dakota; and by April they had landed in St. Louis. Heading eastward, they took an alternate route via the Great Lakes to Buffalo and Albany, New York. On July 16, 1834, they boarded ship in New York and, by the second week in August, landed in Le Havre, France, ending a remarkable two-year odyssey.

Today, most of us would agree that all of Maximilian's journey was an adventure, starting with the 48-day trip from Europe to America. Always at the mercy of the weather, the sail-powered ship was frequently subjected to violent storms, then becalmed by windless days. The ship's passengers risked drowning or depleting their food and water supplies before reaching port. Maximilian, however, discounts the dangers by stating: "Voyages to North America are become everyday occurrences, and little more is to be related of them than that you met and saluted ships, had fine or stormy weather, and the like..."

Since Maximilian's stated purpose was to observe and record the indigenous human inhabitants and the natural landscape of the West of the interior of North America, the bulk of his writing describes the sojourn he and the artist Karl Bodmer(and Maximilian's servant and hunter, Dreidoppel) made up the Missouri River to Fort McKenzie and back. Because of the hazards to be encountered on the Missouri River and in Indian territory, Maximilian was advised to travel by steamboat under the aegis of the American Fur Company, which guaranteed the only relatively safe passage into primitive territory. Therefore, on April 10,1832, Maximilian, Bodmer, and Dreidoppel departed St. Louis, Missouri, on board the steamboat, Yellow-Stone, owned by the fur company.

Tableau 26. WINTER VILLAGE OF THE MINATARRES.
Fort Clark, North Dakota (above Bismarck).

All along the Missouri River, they faced constant adversity. Low water and snags necessitated frequent unloading and reloading of the boat's cargo. Violent storms and strong currents drove the boat ashore and damaged it, as did a fire on board. Supplies were lost overboard; chickens in cages drowned.

"The flames rose from the forest to height of 100 feet--fiery smoke filled the air: it was a splendid sight!"

Many of Maximilian's botanical and zoological specimens were ruined by the water. In fact, he discovered that some of the boat's crew members were tossing his collections overboard. And finally, collections that he shipped home, uninsured, via steamboat were lost in an onboard fire.

When the team stopped at a military post, Fort Leavenworth (then named Cantonment Leavenworth), Kansas, most of the brandy which they needed to preserve specimens was seized. Not long after, Maximilian narrowly missed stepping on a rattlesnake. During Maximilian's stay at Fort McKenzie, Montana, he witnessed, at close range, an Indian battle. That experience combined with reports of other hostilities in the area prohibited his intended travel to the Rocky Mountains.

On their return trip to St. Louis, Maximilian and company stayed at Fort Clark from November 1833 to April 1834. As Maximilian recounts, he and the other inhabitants of the fort endured extreme hardships. The roof of their living quarters leaked, the moisture threatening to ruin their notes, specimens, and drawings. As their food and other provisions ran low, they were prevented from adequately restocking the larder due to the extreme cold and heavy snow. Worst of all, their health was seriously jeopardized.

On the 11th of March I felt the first symptoms of an indisposition, which daily increased, and soon obliged me to take to my bed. It began with a swelling in one knee, and soon extended to the whole leg, which assumed the colour of dark, extravasated blood. A violent fever succeeded, with great weakness, and, having neither medical advice nor suitable remedies, my situation daily became more helpless and distressing, as there was nobody who had any knowledge of this disorder. The other inhabitants of the fort were likewise indisposed, and our provisions were very bad and scanty....

... At the beginning of April I was still in a hopeless condition, and so very ill, that the people who visited me did not think that my life would be prolonged beyond three or, at the most, four days. The cook of the fort...one day expressed his opinion that my illness must be the scurvy, for he had once witnessed the great mortality among the garrison of the fort at Council Bluffs, when several hundred soldiers were carried off in a short time...He said that the symptoms were in both cases nearly similar; that, on that occasion, at the beginning of spring, they had gathered the green herbs in the prairie, especially the small white flowering Allium reticulatum, with which they had soon cured the sick. I was advised to make trial of this recipe, and the Indian children accordingly furnished me with an abundance of this plant and its bulbs: these were cut up small, like spinage, and I ate a quantity of them. On the fourth day the swelling of my leg had considerably subsided, and I gained strength daily.

In the course of their two-year sojourn in the New World, they experienced many adventures. They witnessed a great, spontaneous prairie fire: "The flames rose from the forest to height of 100 feet--fiery smoke filled the air: it was a splendid sight!" They were able to view magnificent wild animals from a unique perspective, as Maximilian recounts an incident from September of 1833:

As we were rapidly carried down by the current, in a turn of the river, we suddenly saw a herd of at least 150 buffaloes, quite near to us, standing on a sand bank in the river. The bulls, bellowing, drove the cows along; many were in motion, and some standing and drinking. It was a most interesting scene. My people laid aside their oars, and let the boat glide noiselessly along within a short rifle-shot of the herd, which took no notice of us, doubtless taking our boat for a mass of drifting timber...The great number of wild animals, buffaloes, elks, bighorns, and antelopes, which we saw on this day, afforded us much entertainment. We checked, on this occasion, our sporting propensities, that we might be able better to observe those interesting animals, in which we perfectly succeeded.

During the 1700 and 1800's, European explorers and scientists were drawn to the New World by the reports of exotic native people and unusual plants and animals. Fortunately, some of the explorers kept journals, which provide us with first hand accounts of the relatively unspoiled wilderness of young America and which include descriptions of indigenous flora and fauna and geographic features and, also, depictions of the cultures of the original human inhabitants. There are a number of noteworthy accounts within Special Collections and the general collection of the National Agricultural Library.

Bullock, William, fl. 1808-1828

Bullock, William. Six months' residence and travels in Mexico: containing remarks on the present state of New Spain, its natural productions, state of society, manufactures, trade, agriculture, and antiquities, &c . London: John Murray, 1824.NAL Call No. 125 B873 R (Special Collections)

Flint, James (1779-1855)

Flint, James. Recollections of the last ten years, passed in occasional residences and journeyings in the valley of the Mississippi . New York: Da Cupo Press, 1968.NAL Call No. F353 F6 1968 (General Collection)

Franchere, Gabriel (1786-1863)

Franchere, Gabriel. Narrative of a voyage to the northwest coast of America in the years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814, or: The first American settlement on the Pacific . New York: Redfield ..., 1854.NAL Call No. 125 F84 R (Special Collections)

Harris, Thaddeus Mason. The journal of a tour into the territory northwest of the Alleghany mountains, made in the spring of the year 1803. With a geographical and historical account of the state of Ohio...By Thaddeus Mason Harris... (In Thwaites, Reuben G. Early western travels 1748-1846 . Cleveland, Ohio, 1904. v. 3 (1904) p. 307, fold map).NAL Call No. 125 T42 v.3 (General Collection)

Lewis, Meriwether (1774-1809) & Clark William (1770-1838)

Burroughs, Raymond Darwin, ed. The natural history of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, with a new introduction by Robert Carriker . East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1995.NAL Call No. QL155 N38 1995 (General Collection)

Lewis, Meriwether. History of the expedition under the command of Lewis and Clark, to the sources of the Missouri River, thence across the Rocky Mountains and down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, performed during the years 1804-5-6, by order of the government of the United States. A new ed., faithfully reprinted from the only authorized ed. Of 1814, with copious critical commentary, prepared upon examination of unpublished official archives and many other sources of information, including a diligent study of the original manuscript journals and field notebooks of the explorers, together with a new biographical and bibliographical introduction, new maps...and a complete index, by Elliott Coues... New York: F. P. Harper, 1893.NAL Call No. 125 L58 (Special Collections)

Lewis Meriwether, and Clark, William. History of the expedition under the command of Captains Lewis and Clark to the sources of the Missouri, across the Rocky mountains, down the Columbia river to the Pacific, in 1804-6; a reprint of the edition of 1814 to which all the members of the expedition contributed. N. Y., 1902.NAL Call No. 125 L58 (General Collection)

Lewis Meriwether. History of the expedition under the command of Captains Lewis and Clark to the sources of the Missouri, thence across the Rocky mountains, down the Columbia river to the Pacific Ocean, performed during the years 1804-5-6, by order of the government of the the United States. A complete reprint of the Biddle ed. of 1814 to which all the members of the expedition contributed, with an account of the Louisiana purchase, by Rev. John Bach McMaster and notes upon the route... New York: Allerton Book Co., 1922.NAL Call No. 125 L58 (General Collection)

Lewis Meriwether. Original journals of the Lewis and Clark expedition, 1804-1806. Printed from the original manuscripts in the library of the American philosophical society and by direction of its committee on historical documents, together with manuscript material of Lewis and Clark from other sources, including note-books, letters, maps, etc., and the journals of Charles Floyd and Joseph Whitehouse. Now for the first time published in full, and exactly as written. Ed., with introduction, notes, and index, by Reuben Gold Thwaites... New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1904-05.NAL Call No. 125 L58 (General Collection)

Wheeler, Olin Dunbar. The trail of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1904 : a story of the great exploration across the continent in 1804-06 : with a description of the old trail, based upon actual travel over it, and of the changes found a century later. New York : Putnam, 1904.NAL Call No. 125 W56 (General Collection)

Michaux, Francois André. The North American sylva, or A description of the forest trees of the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia ... to which is added a description of the most useful of the European forest trees... Tr. from the French of F. Andrew Michaux ... Paris, Printed by C. D'Hautel, 1819.NAL Call No. 454 M582 1819 (Special Collections)

Michaux, Francois André. The North American sylva, or A description of the forest trees of the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia. Considered particularly with respect to their use in the arts and their introduction into commerce. To which is added a description of the most useful of the European forest trees... Tr. from the French of F. Andrew Michaux ... with notes by J. Jay Smith...Philadelphia, D. Rice & A. N. Hart, 1859.NAL Call No. 454 M582 (Special Collections)

Michaux, Francois André. The North American sylva, or A description of the forest trees of the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia. Considered particularly with respect to their use in the arts and their introduction into commerce. To which is added a description of the most useful of the European forest trees... Tr. from the French of F. Andrew Michaux ... with motes by J. Jay Smith...Philadelphia, D. Rice, Rutter & Co., 1865.NAL Call No. 454 M582 (Special Collections)

Michaux, Francois André. Travels to the westward of the Allegany mountains, in the states of the Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and return to Charlestown, through the upper Carolinas... Translated from the French. London, 1805.NAL Call No. 125 M58 (Special Collections)

Michaux, Francois André. Travels to the westward of the Allegany mountains, in the states of the Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessea, and return to Charleston, by the upper Carolinas...undertaken , in the year 1802...by F. A. Michaux... (In Thwaites, Reuben G. Early western travels 1748-1846 . Cleveland, Ohio, 1904. v. 3 (1904) p. 105-306, fold map) Reprint from London ed., 1805.NAL Call No. 125 T42 v.3 (General Collection)

Nuttall, Thomas. A journal of travels into the Arkansa Territory, during the year 1819. With occasional observations on the manners of the aboringines . Philadelphia: T. H. Palmer, 1821.NAL Call No. 125 W96J (Special Collections)

Nuttall, Thomas. The North American sylva, or A description of the forest trees of the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia, not described in the work of F. Andrew Michaux, and containing all the forest trees discovered in the Rocky mountains, the territory of Oregon, down to the shores of the Pacific, and into the
confines of California, as well as in various parts of the United States . Philadelphia: J. Dobson, 1842-49.NAL Call No. 454 N96N (Special Collections)

Special Collections of the National Agricultural Library (NAL) acquires, arranges, describes, preserves and makes available rare materials significant to the history of agriculture. Materials are obtained through donation or active collection in accordance with the established Special Collections collection development policy. Special Collections staff organize and describe materials according to archival principles and create descriptions and indexes to enhance access. Staff do not edit or otherwise modify the original materials. The views expressed in the collections do not necessarily reflect the policies of the National Agricultural Library or the United States Department of Agriculture.